Wind turbines are high tech facilities and are equipped with various electrical components like a control system, a converter, a transformer or with an extensive cabling.
Especially offshore wind turbines are placed in a harsh environment and thus far away from a service hub. Due to the environmental forces, dynamic mechanical loads, vibrations and due to movements, which all acts on the wind turbine, electrical connections of the wind turbine might become loose and thus fault connections may occur.
A fault electrical connection increases electrical losses and might lead to fire in the wind turbine, in a worst case scenario, as electrical losses are transferred into heat.
Smoke detectors are used to detect fire as soon as it emerges, but this point of time may be too late to save the wind turbine from destruction.